Jamshedpur, Nov. 18: The suicide of a final-year student of XLRI shocked the premier business school’s alumni who had been in the city for “Homecoming 2006”, a two-day fest.

Chandramohan S., a student of business management suffering from a rare disease, was found hanging from the ceiling of his second-floor hostel room last night around 11.30. He was taken to Tata Main Hospital where he was declared brought dead.

A pall of gloom descended on the B-school campus after the incident and this year’s fest of its alumni was cancelled.

“We have to cancel all the programmes,” said Jesal Doshi, the executive member of external linkages at XLRI.

Most of the old students coming from different parts of the country and abroad left the campus this afternoon after an informal lunch with XLRI director Fr Casimir Raj.

Twenty-three-year-old Chandramohan had got a job offer from a multinational company around a month ago. The one-page suicide note left behind by him on his laptop made some startling revelations. “I am suffering from Neumann-Pick disease (NPD), a disease of the brain which is almost like AIDS. I know that my decision will hurt my relatives, friends and particularly my parents but I have no choice,” the suicide note read.

A senior police officer investigating the case said the condition of his room and blood stains near the study table where he probably browsed the Net to know about the disease reveal that Chandramohan was probably determined to end his life at any cost.

“Just before hanging himself, the victim had cut his vein. He probably consumed some poisonous substance, too, before hanging himself from the ceiling fan with a bed sheet,” he added.

The cause of the death can only be ascertained after the post-mortem is done after his parents reach here, the officer said.

Chandramohan’s parents are likely to reach here tomorrow.

Deputy superintendent of police Sangeeta Kumari, too, declined to comment on the incident.

XLRI director Fr N. Casimir Raj said: “About 15 days ago, Chandramohan had gone to Chennai. He was suffering from chickenpox then. He returned three days ago and everything was normal. No one at the institute was aware of any type of disease or mental disorder that Chandramohan was suffering from.”

However, one of his classmates said: “Chandramohan turned a bit silent after returning from Chennai. I saw him last at lunch yesterday. Neither had he turned up for evening classes yesterday nor did he attend the quiz contest held after that. We found him hanging in his room around 11.30 pm.”